And so this situation is starting to get ridiculous - and consumers are, as usual, caught in the middle of it all. Google has just blocked Windows Phone devices from accessing Google Maps on their phones. In addition, it also seems Windows Phone users are now restricted to the basic HTML version of the mobile GMail website. While understandable from a defensive perspective - Microsoft's extortion scheme targeting Android device makers and all that - it's still a massive dick move that only hurts consumers. Update: the media attention has worked - Google is backpedalling, and will remove the redirect. "We periodically test Google Maps compatibility with mobile browsers to make sure we deliver the best experience for those users. In our last test, IE mobile still did not offer a good maps experience with no ability to pan or zoom and perform basic map functionality. As a result, we chose to continue to redirect IE mobile users to Google.com where they could at least make local searches. The Firefox mobile browser did offer a somewhat better user experience and that’s why there is no redirect for those users. Recent improvements to IE mobile and Google Maps now deliver a better experience and we are currently working to remove the redirect. We will continue to test Google Maps compatibility with other mobile browsers to ensure the best possible experience for users."

It's pretty funny to read all of the comments from the iFanbois predicting that everyone is going to bend over backwards to find excuses for Google or find some way to spin this, etc. Even more amusing, those comments probably outnumber the comments defending Google. In other words, it's just a "I know you are but what am I?" reaction from iFanboys who get upset when their blind loyalty to Apple is pointed out.

It's an intellectual blind spot that all Apple apologists have: because their blind loyalty to Apple is based largely on fashionability/"coolness", they automatically assume that supporters of other companies have the exact same motivation. But the reality is that Apple is an anomaly in the tech world - other tech companies are liked (or disliked) because of the actual merit of their products, not mere emotion and cognitive dissonance.

Informed techies tend to support Google primarily because of Google's use and support of open standards. This move is contrary to that, so it's criticized - even by people who have supported Google in the past, because (as rational adults) their support of Google is not unconditional. But to Apple fanboys, that's a completely alien concept.

Hence the fact that comments defending Google are almost entirely drowned out by the chorus of comments saying "dick move, Google" - despite the (supposed) legions of blind Google loyalists, who apparently exist only in the minds of Apple fanboys. Seriously, watching iFanboys accuse anyone else of blind loyalty is almost as funny as watching Creatards accuse evolution of being a "religious belief".